Skip to main content

tv   Sino Tv Early Evening News  PBS  February 28, 2011 6:00pm-7:00pm PST

6:00 pm
survived to things like this before, but not like this. a day of mourning. it will be a small ceremony. we will present his wife with momentos. not all of the damage of the disaster has been erased from the city streets. it was just too much. it will take a long time for that. to return to normalcy. like many, and she has been living in temporary accommodations for one year. the government in santiago speaks of major progress, but she has not noticed much improvement. she and the others here even have to pay rent, water, electricity charges. they live in cramped, difficult conditions. >> what is the bureaucracy like?
6:01 pm
for them, the worst is over. maria was in the bedroom when it struck. a falling beam broke her leg, but they receive no compensation. >> to this day, nothing. we were only able to rebuild all because we got loans, but a lot of people could not get credit and still have no home. >> his wife maria remembers how she freed herself despite the injury. the traces of the disaster are gone from the house but not from their heads.
6:02 pm
the story of this young family is a moving one. these take tourists. their daughter was recently born, but one year ago, they lost not only their house and their boats, but also their 4- year-old son in the floods. his body was never found. emilio has built a memorial to him and others. with no great to visit, this is where the young couple come to mourn -- with no grave to visit. they, too, are hoping for financial aid.
6:03 pm
>> [speaking foreign language] >> hardly any tourists come to the island of these days. most visitors are mourners. we dry in lending to the fruit and winegrowing region -- we drive into the fruit and wine growing region in chile. laborers were hard hit. because they had no deeds, they received no compensation. neighbors worked together to finish each house. >> [speaking foreign language] [translation in german]
6:04 pm
>> 100 families now have a better roof over their heads than before, but they are still poor, and the age groups will not stay forever. -- the aid groups. >> [speaking foreign language] [translation in german] >> chilean authorities have had much criticism, but they face a daunting task. damage running into some $30 billion u.s. the government says it has already paid compensation to half of those affected by this tsunami. in one area, the situation is better. the city's south of santiago was badly damaged. seven people were killed, and
6:05 pm
even the city hall in the church were destroyed. but when you're on, the mayor is optimistic. -- one year on. construction work is proceeding at a good pace. >> [speaking foreign language] [translation in german] >> in may year managed to convince a organizations to help with their plans -- the mayor managed to convince aid organizations. again, old materials are being reused. only cla is missing. -- clay is missing.
6:06 pm
>> the school has been providing help to this area for almost one year. >> [speaking foreign language] . >> the school also found a donor willing to provide two years' worth of health-care supplies for the center. the mayor is visiting a family that will be the first of 700 to get a proper house. i asked why things have not improved faster in this area. >> [speaking foreign language] [translation in german] many feared that another quake could come along and destroy everything again. >> seismologists say there is
6:07 pm
little risk of that. >> the region could see more quakes that cause damage, but a make a quick, like one year ago, is unlikely -- a mega quake, like when you're ago, it is unlikely. -- one year ago, is unlikely. >> rebuilding chile has been the focus of our "in depth." thanks for joining us.
6:08 pm
6:09 pm
6:10 pm
>>this week on world business... >>building on a huge new scale, mumbai's property boom is being driven by demand from the very top. >>there are ten thousand new apartments coming. the minimum value of the apartment is going to be a million dollars. >>why china is a leading light in the field of solar power
6:11 pm
>>why the wonders of the natural world are such a huge inspiration for scientists. >>we're not going to make super tankers swim like fish. that's not the point. >>hello and welcome. i'm raya abirached and this is world business, your weekly insight into the global business trends shaping our lives. mumbai's property market has staged a dramatic recovery from the global financial crisis in line with the country's economy. the difference between this and previous real estate booms is the size and increasingly elite nature of the new buildings. >>reporter: the real estate business is
6:12 pm
booming in mumbai, with million dollar plus apartments under construction across the city. >>the biggest symbol of buying power is the new home of india's richest and the world's fourth richest man, mukesh ambani. his palatial tower dominates the skyline of south mumbai. according to reports, it has six floors of parking, a few swimming pools, a ballroom, a cinema and three, yes three, helipads. >>no wonder then india's rich are scrambling to get their own version of a luxury apartment. >>lodha: mumbai is a city of 22 million people or thereabouts. home ownership rates which are are in the range of 20 percent - extremely low by global standards - a rapidly developing economy, and a land-locked island city 456 square kilometres in area - one-fourth of what the new york metropolitan region has for example, but four times the people. so all these factors put together contribute to a very real demand - continues demand for all sorts of real estate.
6:13 pm
>>reporter: and buyers are lapping up developments as soon as they are announced. vijay srirangan has invested half a million dollars in an apartment in this building complex in a mumbai suburb. even though it won't be ready till 2013. >>srirangan: they've got gardens, specialized gardens planned. they've got the usual clubhouse, they've got tennis courts that are planned, other games facilities are in place, children's park. several of those features, the ability to walk around inside the complex - as you grow older that's an important element - all of these add up to making this premium, exciting, and worth spending on as far as i'm concerned. >>reporter: the world's tallest residential tower, world one is planned in central mumbai. 60 percent of its apartments have already been sold, with prices up to 17 million dollars. when completed in 2014, the building will soar 450 metres above
6:14 pm
the arabian sea, but it's not just status that's driving the reachupwards.... >>lodha: at that height the theoretical temperature drop is 5 degrees from the ground level; so the air up there is 5 degrees cooler than it is at the ground. >>reporter: this is just one of a new wave of super-tall apartment towers springing up around mumbai. these gated developments, a mark of india's rising economic clout, are not only changing the city's skyline but also its social fabric. they tower over crowded slums, which house half of the city's population, highlighting the growing gap between haves and have-nots in what is already one of the world's most unequal societies. >>alam: our huts are made of wood, we've covered it with plastic sheets, but during the rains we have problems. its difficult for our children when the water floods these paths, and when the wind blows away the plastic sheets,
6:15 pm
our homes get flooded too. the government doesn't provide us with any facilities,there is no drinking water and no electricity here. >>reporter: but far from investing in the potential growth area of affordable housing, most developers are focusing on luxury apartments attracted by huge margins >>in the lower parel neighborhood, developers bought former industrial land for around 66 dollars per square foot a decade ago. they are now charging 10 times that for their apartments. meaning they only need sell a handful to the super rich to recover costs. >>varghese: the discrepancy in bombay is that at one level, you have people who don't have even the basic of human rights - whether it's the right to shelter, whether it's the right to water, right to food, rightto a clean toilet. and on the other side, you have big, big buildings
6:16 pm
coming of individuals, 60 floor buildings...the amount of energy used, the amount of water used, this means that the share which is available to the rest of the people in the city is drastically going down. >>reporter: but so too is the share of credit that has fuelled this boom, as banks become increasingly cautious about lending to real estate developers. also, india's interest rates have risen over the last year making it more costly to borrow money. >>in the long run, the quality of land a developer possesses will be crucial and that shows no signsof changing... >>khetan: land is very scarce in bombay, in the heart of the city of bombay, there is hardly any land which issurplus land which is remaining vacant. so sourcing land is definitely a big challenge...we alwaysbelieve no business can survive on 20 years' or 25 years' of inventory, so we always believe in quality of the land rather
6:17 pm
than the quantity of land. >>reporter: yet with every developer rushing to announce premium projects, many believe the market is already oversaturated. >>vakil: there are 10,000 new apartments coming where the minimum value of the apartment is going to be a million dollars. are there enough buyers, all of us feel there are not enough buyers to take 10,000 apartments in the next 2 years. >>reporter: this segment has seen prices grow by 30 percent in the last year alone and such apartments may now be overpriced. at the same time, many buyers have their money stuck in the indian stock market, whichhas fallen by more than 10% so far this year. >>vakil: this industry like the stock market has begun to depend on the confidence. and that confidence seemsto have been shaken. and if the confidence is shaken what the typical buyer would do is put off
6:18 pm
thepurchase. that's what we are seeing today... >>reporter: yet despite jitters analysts expect only a mild correction in the prices of luxury homes of 10 to 15percent in the next few months. with demand expected to continue its upward climb once again, as the indian economy expands at 8.5 percent this year. >>china may now be the world's second largest polluter, but it is moving swiftly to address this issue. the country already dominates the global solar power industry and is using the technology domestically to seriously reduce carbon emissions. >>reporter: a typical grey day in china's industrial heartland. the rampant growth that has made the country the world's second largest economy and on track to become the biggest in only a decade, comes at a price as it pumps out pollution on a staggering scale.
6:19 pm
>>picken: it's unprecedented in the scale of what's needed, and of course, the alternative is too frightening to think about. what we need to be able to do is to look at the objectives of avoiding dangerous climate change, and put in place the policies that fairly and adequately address the problem. >>reporter: yet china is already leading the charge in renewable energy with the government throwing its weight behind green energy projects. >>romm: china has made a decision at a very high level that clean energy is the future. they are already poised to be the number one maker of solar cells, the number one manufacturer of wind turbines. they are already the number one makers of solar hot water heaters and they want to be the leader in electric cars and batteries. so yes, the game is on absolutely. >>reporter: one example is rizhao in northern shandong, which
6:20 pm
receives more than three hundred days of sunshine a year. and this small city of 3 million is turning this free energy source to its advantage >>here ninety percent of urban houses have solar-thermal units to heat their water. green jobs are flourishing in rizhao owing to government legislation. >>the market for solar-thermal heaters is on the rise. >>bangguan: since 1995 we've sold several hundred solar panels, and gradually sales were increasing. by 2000 sales reached more than 10,000 a year. now, it's around several hundred thousand. >>reporter: the shan shui grand hotel has one of the biggest solar-thermal systems in the city. its laundry roomuses water heated mainly by the sun washing eight hundred items every day. >>weijun: every year we save 24 thousand dollars that means we can get back the money we invested within threeyears. and now, it's really advantageous
6:21 pm
and saved so much energy and reduced emissions a lot. >>reporter: in rizhao this isn't just saving money...it's helping china as a whole cut its energy bills. 6'' >>haibo: a normal family solar panel can save around 200 kilograms of coal per annum. according to our rough estimate. the whole city can save roughly 25,000 tons of coal a year. it helps the city to save a lot of energy. >>reporter: nor is this city an isolated example, 300 kilometres south of beijing is the city of dezhou which has really taken solar power to heart... >>70 percent of the city is powered by the sun. it boasts the world's longest street lit by photovoltaics, the largest solar powered building in the world and is home to the largest maker of solar water heaters himin.
6:22 pm
>>ming: this sun moon mansion indicates my dreams to promote solar energy into all the buildings of the world. >>reporter: and he is well on the way to achieving that dream. his firm employs 60,000 people and sells 300 million square metres of solar heaters every year. costing less than $300 the heaters are springing up on rooftops all over china... >>dong: traditional fossil fuel energy will be exhausted very soon. so this hotel is using solar water heaters, which saves about 50% energy. it is clean and will help solve the problems of the environment. it will improve the climate greatly. >>reporter: and the man known in china as the "solar king" is almost evangelical about the potential of solar power.
6:23 pm
>>ming: we want to tell the world that green energy will not only benefit the environment, benefit the energy supplies but also benefit our lifestyle, >>reporter: a lifestyle that is changing forever as the chinese move in their millions from the country to the cities, grow richer and consume more, putting more pressure on an already resource stretched planet. >>but china is making more impressive headway than many other countries meaning it could become the world's first green superpower. >>still to come on world business... >>why it's only natural for scientists to copy designs evolution has perfected. >>and we take a trip to the french alps for a spot of speed riding. >>fast, furious and flying high... and the rest in just
6:24 pm
a moment on world business... >>over the last few hundred years the technological leaps made by mankind have been staggering. but the complexity of what we can achieve today is nothing compared to what occurs naturally in the animal world. and some scientists believe the best way forward is simply to copy nature. >>reporter: nature is amazing, efficient and above all sustainable. and a growing number of designers and scientists are looking closer than ever to the natural world for inspiration. >>parker: biomimetics is extracting good design from nature. it's learning all the various ways that nature can interact with its environment and survive.
6:25 pm
because most of the work begins in biology departments, we then need to involve engineering and physics, the physical sciences, so once those two groups come together that's when we really have biomimetics. >>reporter: at the newly opened darwin centre in london's natural history museum, 17 million insects and 3 million plant specimens are providing a rich platform for research, into everything from malaria treatments to transport - even credit card security. >>parker: we're finding new structures and we're interested in the way they do interact with water or air or light for example. butterflies have wings with about 100,000 scales. and if we look you'll find nanostructures there that interact with light waves to produce iridescent colours, in the same way as holograms on credit cards for example. by replacing air with acetone you will see how the blue turns to green and as the acetone evaporates, air comes back and the blue colour returns. >>reporter:
6:26 pm
it may be an obvious model for sustainability and efficiency but until now the natural world has largely been ignored by the commercial one. but that's changing. bmt defence services, which specializes in naval design and engineering, has formed a symbiotic relationship with its neighbour, the university of bath and together they are coming up with some fascinating new technology. >>quilliam: underwater animals, tend to fish in the light, tend to be very quiet as well as being energy efficient, so you can see the defence applications in terms of stealthiness, in terms of energy efficiency,in termsoft on returning to port, returning to a home vessel; being very attractive. >>megill: best propellers there are, are about 70 percent efficient - power in, thrust out - fish on the same scale are 95 to 98 percent efficient. so you're able to generate a whole lot more efficient use, nowconvert that into a motor design and you've got less emissions. >>reporter: bmt sponsors projects at the university with a view that the results may one day have applications in the market. hoping to learn potentially profitable lessons
6:27 pm
from evolution, researchers have drawn inspiration from creatures as diverse as birds that can swim underwater, to the mangrove-dwelling knife-fish. >>megill: this is a kind of fish that holds its body rigid and has a fin on the bottom of its belly and it's one of the only fish that can swim backwards just as easily as it can forward. so that says to us "ha! manoeuvrable." so we've gone and made a machine that mimics that propulsion mechanism. the robopuffin is a different machine, again, based on the same hull but in this case what we have is a set of flapping wings and so the idea is to look at the efficiency of things like penguins and puffins. so we have an oscillating motion so the wing is moving up and down. >>reporter: another company is working to a similar model based on spider research at oxford university. orthox develops medical devices to repair and regenerate damaged knee cartilage. the secret weapon... silk and to produce it, they're using some of same
6:28 pm
processes spiders use to spin webs. >>skaer: although it's only a tenth the thickness of human hair, if you had a spider silk fibre which was thethickness of a pencil, and a web constructed of fibres that size, then you could stop a jumbo jet with it. >>reporter: spiders use their webs to catch insects, not passing jets, but given the properties of various silks, it's no wonder scientists like nick skaer are interested in their potential. >>with experts predicting a 500% rise in knee replacement operations over the next two decades, there is a potentially huge and profitable market, yet funding still proves elusive... >>skaer: we can't acknowledge too greatly the help the wellcome trust have given us in getting this far, but funding in general for biomimetics is a challenge. >>vollrath: the medical area is always a problematic one because of these huge timescales, from the first idea to ideally then a patent, and then the proof of principle, proof
6:29 pm
of concept, proof of safety, and then the proof of basically a product that can make money. >>reporter: but the idea is catching on. one study found the number of patents involving biomimicry had nearly doubled in the last 20 years. >>but there is still plenty of work to be done. >>megill: we're not gonna make supertankers swim like fish. that's not the point. >>parker: biomimetics is probably not going to completely save the world, but there are many cases that we come across all the time where we do see potential application. we see real potential. the trick is i suppose working with just the right company. >>quilliam: we won't get it right first time. the balance is probably to understand where you can and where you can't replicate what nature has done. understand the limitations of materials, be they naturally occurring materials or manmade and to limit your expectations of biomimicry within those bounds.
6:30 pm
>>reporter: just as the wonders of nature didn't appear over night, this science too needs time to evolve. biologists and engineers still have a lot of catching up to do. about 500 million years should do the trick. >>speed riding is a combination of downhill skiing and paragliding. samoens, a small ski resort withbig ideas, hosts the french national championships and hopes to fly high on the back of the world'sfinest speed riding stars. >>reporter: speed riding, quite possibly the most adrenaline-fuelled extreme sport in the world. a high octane combination of freeride skiing and paragliding, riders can reach speeds of close to 200 km an hour asthey ski impossible lines, flying
6:31 pm
over any cliffs that get in their way. >>the french national championships take place every april in samoens, in the french alps. since 2005 the sport has been officially recognised by the french federation and has grown up from being practised by a handful of pioneers to over 5000 people worldwide. >>roussel: each year we are growing. there is a leader market which is france and then switzerland. and now it's coming from more and more countries in the world like usa, new zealand, sweden, norway. also in chile, argentina so it's really growing and for us we are the leaders in the market >>reporter: the national speed riding championships take place over several disciplines, the derby event, essentially slalom, speed riding style, where competitors have to touch down between specific gates, and big mountain
6:32 pm
freeride, the purest expression of the sport. >>bon: the derby style is always funny because it's like a game you play with your friends and you try to be as technical as possible but for me the true spirit of speed riding is the free ride task. it's aface, it's slow you express yourself as you want with your technique and your idea of the line and your idea of the style and then there is a jury which is noting all that kind of criteria is, technique, fluidity, style, line. >>reporter: and it is events like these which are helping to promote and grow the sport >>roussel: it gives a possibility for the normal rider to come and to try and ride with the best ones then a technical level improves. this is important to improve the technical level
6:33 pm
because like that we can show people from all over the world sport is very safe and very easy to do and then more people will come so we can see the first advantage is technical improvement of the riders. >>reporter: and for the resort it's not just about putting on a show,. it's a unique way to promote themselves to a wider audience. samoens has invested 30,000 on the event in order to promote the off-piste potential of the area, particularly in late season >>boden: this is a great, very great investment ... we need to find new holidaymakers in march and april and through this activities we could interest people through the world and especially in europe >>reporter:
6:34 pm
other sponsors too have been quick to align their brands with this new sport. >>bidaux: the idea is to show that fischer is not only fischer racing ski but is also about a free ride ski. last year we we sponsored one athlete who is in the speed riding this year with the idea being to show that we have a good free ride ski >>reporter: and even though it's still very much a niche sport, because of its skiing roots it has wider appeal to sponsors >>montant: we interest the ski market and this is a big market so it's more easy in speed riding to find some sponsor than in paragliding >>reporter: significantly, for good skiers at least, it's also much easier to learn than paragliding, and with costs of around 1500 for a new canopy and harness, setup costs are another obstacle that can be leaped
6:35 pm
>>montant: it's quite easy to learn. ... the most important is to have a good ski level at the beginning because we take off fast we land fast and we're always playing off-piste in different snow conditions so it's important to be a good skier but then it's easy to understand and learn how to pilot the wing >>reporter: the skill, and thrill, of speed riding is not when you are flying but when you are skiing, the idea is to stay close to the ground and only use the kite when you need to. but of course like any pioneering extreme sport its dangerous and can be fatal. nine people have been killed since the sport was first conceived 10 years ago, a ratio of around 500:1. so while it is undeniably dangerous, it's allabout managing the risk: >>bon: you have to be centred and cool and always think correctly as to what happens and how you manage it and everything so yes of course it's a skiing sport,
6:36 pm
it's a flying sport, the speed can be very highin places where we go can be very steep so of course it can be dangerous but the only thing is it depends on how you do it and the main word is pleasure >>reporter: and do you have to be a little bit crazy? >>montant: no no no, just enough just to want to do it, just want to go, just to want to practice. but if you are just crazy you cannot do it a long time you have to be clear and clean in your mind >>reporter: so those backing the sport will hope that while numbers grow ever skyward, the athletes themselves keep their feet on the ground. >>that's it for this week's world business. thanks for watching. we'll see you again at the same time next week.
6:37 pm
6:38 pm
6:39 pm
6:40 pm
6:41 pm
welcome to nhk world "newsline." a senior united nations official says more than 1,000 people may have been killed in the qulain capital of tripoli since anti-government protests erupted about two weeks ago. u.n. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs valerie amos made the assessment at a news conference monday, citing several sources. >> we are seeing reports of over 1,000 people who are said to have died as a result of security problems in tripoli. >> amos added that the fragile security situation in libya makes it difficult to know precisely what is happening there. she also said more than 60,000 people are believed to have fled from libya to egypt and another 40,000 to tunisia. she stressed the urgent need for food and drinking water for refugees as well as clean and
6:42 pm
safe shelters. meanwhile, supporters of embattled leader moammar gadhafi are fighting back in cities under control of anti-government forces near the capital tripoli. protesters have taken control of major cities in the northeastern part of the country. they're preparing for a post gadhafi interim government that would include former cabinet members who recently resigned their posts. but gadhafi has pledged to fight to the end. his forces used helicopter gunships on monday to attack a radio station in the third largest city of misratah, 200 kilometers east of tripoli. they're also surrounding zawiyah, 50 kilometers west of the capital, which the protesters seized last week. meanwhile, gadhafi spoke to western media on monday in tripoli. it's the first time since anti-government protests started in the country. >> will you leave libya? >> they love me, all my people with me. they love me all. >> but if they do love you -- >> they will die to protect me,
6:43 pm
my people. >> king abdullah of saudi arabia has promised to hire all 90,000 temporary government workers as permanent staff. it's apparently seen as trying to avoid the unrest that has hit neighboring countries. the king's offer follows the announcement last week of an aid package worth about $36 billion. it includes provisions for young people and those of lower income. the measure also comes as activists are demanding reforms. there is a campaign to overthrow the government on the social networking site facebook. anti-government supporters are calling for a nationwide day of rage on march 11th. in neighbor's yemen demonstrators clashed with security forces on monday, killing four people. and in oman some protesters began looting supermarkets. egypt's top prosecutor has frozen the assets of ousted president hosni mubarak and his family and banned them from leaving the country opposition forces have long claimed that mubarak amassed illegal wealth
6:44 pm
during his 30 years in power. the prosecutor issued the order on monday for mubarak, his wife suzanne, their two sons, and the sons' spouses. mubarak has been staying in the eastern resort of sharm el-sheikh. he stepped down on february 11th after facing massive anti-groft protests. a local newspaper reported on monday that mubarak's family may have about $185 million stashed in secret accounts at a state-owned bank in egypt. observers say the launch of a full-scale investigation into the former president's finances shows the egyptian authorities' desire to distance themselves from the mubarak administration. one week has passed since a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit new zealand last tuesday. dead and miss iing could rise to 240. local police say 154 people have
6:45 pm
been confirmed dead. among the dead eight bodies identified so far are all new zealanders. the police say they're doing their best to identify the bodies using dna samples collected from family members. also, as time passes, the families who have traveled to new zealand are suffering from stress. >> a senior official of christchur christchurch, new zealand has revealed a building that collapsed in the earthquake had been approved by city inspectors after a previous quake last september. many foreign students are believed to have been trapped inside. the official in charge of construction said at a news conference on monday the city carried out a quake-resistance inspection of the now-collapsed ctv building after last september's magnitude 7 quake. he added that tuesday's quake was far stronger than predicted
6:46 pm
and the city was not at fault regarding its decision. the governments of japan and china are trying to repair their countries' tattered relations. high-ranking officials from both sides have agreed to work together to promote mutual trust and respect. things soured last september after a chinese trawler collided with japanese coast guard ships near the senkaku islands in the east china sea. japanese vice foreign minister ken-ichiro sas aechlt and chinese vice foreign minister zhang jijun met on monday in tokyo. it's the first time this kind of meeting has happened since june 2009. they agreed this year will be important because next year marks the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between their two nations. they also said their two governments would try to encourage harmony between their citizens. sasae reportedly told the chinese side the senkaku islands are an integral part of japan and there is no territorial issue between the two countries.
6:47 pm
it's also believed he proposed to resume stalled negotiations on the joint development of a gas field in the east china sea. zhang later told reporters the meeting was fruitful as they had frank exchange of opinions. japan's lower house passed next year's fiscal budget on tuesday. but that doesn't mean prime minister naoto kan will automatically get the funds he needs. he's failing to win the cooperation of some of his own party members and may have little chance of getting the necessary bills through to implement the budget. the opposition voted against the budget, criticizing it as wasteful spending to attract
6:48 pm
voters. -l 16 lawmakers in kan's democratic party of japan, or the dpj, rebelled and boycotted the voting. they say kan is not a legitimate leader anymore. their actions imply that they may do the same when it comes to voting on budget-related bills. the lower house's decision on a budget supersedes the upper house under the japanese constitution. but those bills have to pass both houses. without the cooperation from at least one of the opposition parties and the 16 dpj rebels, the bills cannot pass. the opposition is already threatening to veto using their majority in the upper chamber. earlier my colleague catherine kobayashi spoke to nhk world's political commentator masayo nakajima for deelths. >> the lower house controlled by kan's party just passed the budget. however, cannes still needs support of opposition lawmakers in order to pass the budget-related bills which are
6:49 pm
very necessary in order to fund the budget. however, those budget-related bills need to be approved by both houses, the upper house being controlled by the opposition. it's going to be very difficult for kan to get those bills approved. >> yes. that's exactly what prime minister kan has been worried about, or afraid of. if he cannot pass -- implement the budget, his administration is sure to be deadlocked. a failure to pass the budget-related bills will shut down parts of the government. in the 1990s in the united states the clinton administration failed to pass the budget. as a result, hundreds of thousands of government workers had to stop working temporarily. >> so how will the prime minister deal or overcome this situation? >> well, prime minister kan will try to postpone or delay voting on the budget-related bills as late as possible. he's hoping that by that time the opposition parties would change their minds and cooperate. the prime minister is also hoping that the japanese people
6:50 pm
will not just criticize his administration but also the opposition parties for not implementing the budget. as a matter of fact, japanese businesses are already worried about the impact on the market if the budget fails to work. kan has defended the budget and the related bills. he has insisted that they are needed for the economy, for japan's economy to recover. >> so what will kan do if he doesn't succeed? >> well, if the prime minister cannot pass the budget-related bills by the end of the current diet session, which is june 22nd, he'll be cornered. he would have to resign or call a general election to break the deadlock. but you know, prime minister kan doesn't want to resign. so he'll probably dissolve the lower house and call a general election, even though his own democratic party of japan is likely to lose a lot of seats under an unpopular prime minister. >> this is a story we'll definitely have to follow, and
6:51 pm
we'll wait and see what happens. thanks very much, masayo, for joining us. our political commentator masayo nakajima. a unesco world heritage site in pakistan is under attack from salt. the site, moren-jo daro is all that remains of an ancient city settled beside the indus river. if the salt erosion isn't stopped, the brick ruins will crumble. nhk world's nazar ali islam has the story. >> reporter: moenjodaro lies 800 kilometers south of pakistan's capital, islamabad. the ruins are famous around the world. about 4,500 years ago more than 30,000 people of the indus civilization lived here. their buildings and services
6:52 pm
were advanced. a sewage system ran throughout the city. but now this cultural treasure is on the brink of collapse. the white material covering these bricks, and when i touch it, it's easily broken. it is a crystal salt. it causes the ruins to crumble. salt crystals are visible on the walls. the salt is in the groundwater. when the water evaporates, the salt crystals remain. then the salt eats into the bricks. the ruins are in a dry region. the surrounding earth holds a lot of salt.
6:53 pm
so erosion of the structures start from the ground up. every day the staff wipes the salt away. but more takes its place. the workers can't keep up. the indus river flood last summer made things worse. large amounts of water started flowing underground. this caused the salty groundwater to rise. a nearby museum examined the soil. it found that the salt had risen much higher in the soil than before the flood. as the groundwater receded, the salt stayed behind.
6:54 pm
>> translator: we found that this soil has a 95% salt concentration. if this continues, we will lose our precious ruins to salt damage. >> reporter: to stop that from happening they began coating the bricks with mud. when they strip away the mud, the salt crystals stick to the mud, and the bricks stay in their original state. but securing money for the work is a problem. tourism money once paid for maintenance costs. but due to the worsening security situation the number of foreign visitors has fallen from 30,000 a year to only 300. >> translator: so you see, that's how the situation shapes
6:55 pm
up. all we can do is maintain the status quo. >> reporter: moenjodaro was once a prosperous ancient city blessed by the indus river. but today all that remains are ruins, and they are in danger of collapse. nazar ul islam, nhk world, islamabad. >> 90% of the site has yet to be excavated, but the digging could cause more groundwater to flood. the museum says it hopes peace will return to the region so that tourists come back and the site receives more international support. japan's unemployment rate in january remained unchanged from the previous month at 4.9%. the internal affairs ministry
6:56 pm
released the seasonally adjusted figures on tuesday. the number of people were w. jobs was about 62 million, which is down about 90,000 from a year earlier. the number of unemployed stood at about 3 million. this is down 140,000 from the same month a year ago. separately, a report from the labor ministry showed job availability in january improved for a ninth straight month. the ministry says that 61 positions were available for every 100 job seekers. the jobs to applicants ratio for full-time workers also rose from the previous month to 0.4, up 0.02 points. japanese college students entering the workforce this spring are facing a tough time. they typically secure employment before finishing their studies. with one month left until graduation, 1 out of 3 has yet to clinch a job offer. the lowest ever. but that figure conceals a distortion in japan's job market, and it's something the government wants to correct. nhk world's chia tanaka has more.
6:57 pm
>> translator: i've been job hunting for more than a year. i've applied to some 70 firms. but haven't received a single offer. >> translator: i'll work for any company that may hire me. that may not sound positive, but what can i do in this market? >> reporter: large companies have already filled their hiring quote quota for this spring, o'only small and mid-sized firms took part in this job fair held last month. and it turns out half of these 20-plus businesses were stepping up their hiring plans. in a good economy it's harder for smaller businesses to secure top-grade talent. the difficult job market is giving smaller firms a chance to pick up more new graduates with high potential. buneanto private research 300 employeesecnle
6:58 pm
re a lot on about us to rejected b 23 students on coin with only41 may
6:59 pm
ve

271 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on